My August gnome is coming to you a little late (I mean, it is October tomorrow…), but I promise that I did actually knit this one in August! I’m just only getting around to sharing her here now, but she’s been on my Ravelry page for a while now.

Introducing… Gnectar the First!

Gnectar the First’s favourite time of year is when the blackberries are ripe. She likes to go out foraging, stuffing her pocket full of the berries (although this has led to it being tinted a rather deep shade of pink!). She’ll try any blackberry recipe she can get her hands on: jams, jellies, cakes, muffins, crumbles, crisps— you name it! Outside of blackberry season, Gnectar busies herself with perfecting her sticky gingerbread recipe: she’s determined to finally win the award for Best in Loaf at the Grimblewood Fair one day!

Table of Contents

• Choosing August’s Gnome
• The Yarn
• Thoughts on the Pattern
• Changes/Adaptations
• Things I Loved!
• Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
• Final Thoughts

Choosing August’s Gnome

Throughout my gnome-making adventures this year, I’ve nearly managed to knit my way through the whole of The Gnomes of Grimblewood— at the start of August, there were just two gnomes I had yet to make: Gnectar the Marbled Gnome and Gnoodles the Smallest Gnome. I’m aiming to knit all of the gnomes from the book at least once by the end of the year, so I decided to tackle one of them for August!

I chose Gnectar (mainly because I figured Gnoodles would be a super quick knit, so I decided to do future Gemma a favour and save him for a busier month!).

The Yarn

Another gnome, another instance of me going off-piste and spontaneously making ill-advised colour choices… I just can’t help it! On the plus side, I’m back to using up scraps of fingering weight yarn with Gnectar (which has been my aim throughout this series— I’ve done it for all but one of my gnomes!).

I was mostly considering the hat when I made my choices, so I picked 3 shades of pink, along with a gingerbread colour to marl with them, to give my Gnectar a vaguely autumnal, pinkish candy corn vibe! I love this in theory, and it does look good close up, but I feel like the lightest and medium pink shades look a little too similar from afar, so I didn’t quite get the defined stripes that I was looking for.

I had initially planned to marl the gingerbread colour with a white yarn for the body, but I suddenly panicked that the white beard/nose/hands would disappear into the body if I did that, so, at the last minute, I decided to use the palest pink colour instead. I definitely feel like I should have followed the pattern suggestion (shocker!) and used a completely different contrast colour in the body, because I think my Gnectar looks a little… same-y? She’s lovely, but I just think she could use a little more definition! A little more contrast! A little more pizazz!

Thoughts on the Pattern

I really enjoyed coming back to a book gnome pattern after a few months of knitalong style patterns: I find that they are a lot clearer and easy to follow, which makes the gnome-making process even more enjoyable for me!

Gnectar is worked with the yarn held double for everything except the beard, which is knitted with a single strand of yarn. This allows you to achieve that marled effect, but it also makes the fabric much firmer (even though you work on larger needles, to compensate for this!). The firmer fabric definitely makes the stuffing process easier, as each of the pieces are more inclined to hold their intended shape. However, I don’t love knitting with the yarn held double: I always seem to drop loops here and there and I do find it quite hard on my fingers! The pattern does mention that a ‘not-so-hidden’ ninth gnome can be made by knitting Gnectar with a single strand of yarn, so I’m tempted to try that instead next time!

Because of the yarn-held-double situation, and the general roundedness of Gnectar‘s body, she is quite a large gnome. She’s just slightly shorted than Gnolan (but quite a bit stouter!). In terms of circumference (so sorry, Gnectar), she’s more comparable to Gnatalia.

Changes/Adaptations

Aside from my aforementioned, ill-advised colour choices, I didn’t make any (intentional) changes to my gnome. This was my first time making Gnectar, so I wanted to make her according to the pattern!

However, I definitely did (completely accidentally) make one of the i-cord toppers on Gnectar‘s hat longer than the others, which I guess is a change, but was not intentional and honestly bugs me A LOT, so I will definitely be making a conscious effort not to do that again the next time I make a Gnectar!

Things I Loved!

There’s always so much to love about Schira’s gnomes, but here are my favourite things about Gnectar:

• The shape of her hat.

I love the perfect cone shape of Gnectar‘s hat (made even more perfect by the more rigid fabric, which makes the hat super easy to stuff and means it keeps its shape much better!). Gnectar‘s hat is very similar to Gnorri‘s hat (my first ever gnome), but it was much easier to stuff!

• The rolled brim on her hat.

I think this is only my second rolled brim (I believe Gnolan was the first!) and I really do like how they look. In fact, I think it looks even better on Gnectar than on Gnolan (sorry, Gnolan) because the fabric is thicker, so it’s a little more defined!

• The colour combo of the hot pink and the gingerbread.

I may have had some issues with my colour choices, but I think the hot pink shade, marled with the gingerbread shade, looks really great! I think it also helps to add a bit of spice to Gnectar, who, otherwise, it’s true— does look a little same-y!

• The contrast of the beard/nose against the body.

I really love how stark the beard/nose look against the marled body: there’s a lot of marbling going on with Gnectar and, while that’s definitely her thing, it’s nice to see a large block of solid colour as well.

• The size of her nose.

The yarn is held double for the nose as well, which makes it extra big and perfectly round. Because Gnectar‘s a pretty big gnome, I think the big nose looks really good on her!

Things I Didn’t Quite Love…

Naturally though, there are a few parts of Gnectar that I didn’t enjoy quite so much, or just think I could do better next time:

• The colour choices.

I’ve talked about this in depth, so you don’t need to hear it again: I went crazy with my colour choices and I don’t think they quite worked out. Love some of them, love the idea, but don’t love the final result!

• The i-cord hat toppers.

I was so excited for these, because I think they look so good on the sample Gnectars in the book, but I think I just didn’t execute them very well because mine don’t look… right? I think I made them a bit too long, so they’re a little sad and floppy (not to mention uneven, but that was definitely my mistake). I don’t know, I just had such high hopes for these and I’m a bit disappointed in them! I will definitely give them another go though, because I do think they make Gnectar extra special.

• The single pocket.

I think this might be a result of my colour choices, but the single pocket just… isn’t working for me here? The pockets look so good on the sample Gnectars (which makes me think it definitely is my colour choices), but I think my pocket gets a bit lost on the body and just feels quite small in comparison to the very large gnome?

• Sewing in the ends.

Yet another reason to dislike knitting with the yarn held double: twice. as. many. ends. That’s it.

Final Thoughts

I’ll be honest here, Gnectar isn’t my favourite of the gnomes I’ve made so far for the Year of Gnomes, but I take full responsibility for that, because I’m 99% sure it’s because of my colour choices! I took a risk and it didn’t quite pay off. However! I think there’s definitely potential there: I love the hot pink/gingerbread combo, so maybe if I replaced the pale pink shade with a cream (?) on the hat, to get a proper ombré effect, then used a different contrast colour for the body, I could get my vision to work?

I’d love to make a recreation of the red sample from the book, because I think those colours look great together and really bring out the best in the pattern. Also, I’d love to get the topper right, because it just has so much potential!

If you're interested...

You can buy The Gnomes of Grimblewood on Amazon here.

You can find the pattern for Gnectar on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gnectar the First here.

Gemma

xxx